The Chronicle recently published a good column about blogging being “a hazard to a budding academic career.” The author agrees with me–blogging is an activity that helps you understand the new media landscape, as well as that of your students. He offers the following advice:
Be relevant. Rather than try to beat our brave new world, join it. … Embracing technology connects you not only to your students, but also to a world of better research through time-saving and exhaustive online databases.
He tempers this by offering more good advice to be honest, but never negative or slanderous. I hope this is advice I’ve lived up to, but that if not somebody would call me on it!
It can be tough to hear that blogging might be a strike against a job candidate. I only hope that an active, reflective understanding of how blogging might fit in our media landscape will be seen as an advantage.